Apparatus for controlling air cleaning of roving frames



A. J. AUFFREY Sept. 4, 1962 APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING AIR CLEANING OF ROVING FRAMES Filed April 26, 1960 T0 MOTOR STARTER FIG.

INVENTOR.

ALBERT J. AUFFREY BY ATTORNEY 3,051,978 APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING AIR CLEANING F ROVING FRAMES Albert J. Autfrey, Salisbury, N.C., assignor to Grinnell Corporation, Providence, R.I., a corporation of Deltaware Filed Apr. 26, 1960, Ser. No. 24,718 6 Claims. (Cl. 15-312) This invention relates to roving frames, and more particularly to apparatus for controlling an overhead cleaning device in conjunction with a roving frame.

Recently there has been applied to the roving art various means for automatically cleaning the roving frames While they process slivers into roving. These have developed primarily as overhead traveling blower units which periodically pass over the roving frame on a track and direct streams of air on to the roving frame. This art has advanced to the point where these cleaners are capable of doing a highly acceptable cleaning job. However, one problem has been present and unsolved until my invention herein disclosed.

As those skilled in the art are aware the slivers from which the roving is processed is very delicate, usually a soft fluffy strand of %1' to 1" in diameter and having no twist. Prior to the insertion of twist and draft to form the roving these slivers have very little tensile strength and are therefore susceptible to a slight force which could cause the slivers to separate. When the roving frame is in operation the step of drawing a sliver from its container and through the drafting rolls of the roving frame apparently imparts more strength to the sliver than when it is at rest. Thus it is common practice to utilize an air blowing cleaner to deliver an air stream strong enough to clean the roving frame while it is in operation and not break the slivers, but too strong for the slivers should the frame not be in operation. It is therefore possible to cause a large number of slivers to break on an inoperative machine. The reason why the volume and velocity of the cleaning air is not reduced to prevent the latter from occurring is that it is desirable to have as much air as is possible and necessary delivered to an operating roving frame to attain the highest degree of cleaning power. Naturally, cost considerations will enter into the decision as to what is necessary. Conversely, from the above disclosure, when the machine (roving frame) is not working it is desirable to have no air delivered to the slack slivers and thus preclude breakage of these weak strands.

The operation of a modern roving frame is such that occasionally a breakage of a sliver or a roving will occur. When this happens a stop motion will be actuated and cause the machine to stop. In the past, the overhead cleaner continued to operate and when passing over a stopped machine would blow many slivers apart causing them to entangle with each other, which gave the operator a great deal of work and trouble to start the machine. To prevent such damage from happening there have been proposals for shutting off the blower when the roving frame is off. However, these proposals have not been widely accepted because they either failed to give continuous control of the blower or they required extensive supplemental mechanical and/or electrical contacts and ice controls to attain continuous blower control. This continuous control is important because roving frames are as much as 45 feet long and have as many as spindles so that without proper control it is possible for the blower to cause more damage to the setup of a stopped machine than the original trouble which caused the machine to stop.

It is therefore an object of my invention to provide an arrangement whereby continuous control is maintained between a roving frame cleaner and the roving frame being cleaned thereby in an effective and economical manner.

More explicitly it is an object of my invention to provide an arrangement whereby a roving frame cleaner blower, regardless of its position over the roving frame that it is cleaning, will be shut off the moment that the roving frame stops operating.

Itis a further object to provide an arrangement whereby a roving frame cleaner blower, regardless of its position to the roving frame over which it is passing, may be placed into operation the moment that the roving frame is placed into operation after a shut down.

Another object is to attain the above objects without the use of direct mechanical or electrical contacts between the roving frame and the roving frame cleaner.

A reading of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of my invention will make clear to those skilled in the art other objects, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view showing the relationship between the parts comprising my invention.

FIGURE 2 is a wiring diagram of a portion of my invention showing the control for the cleaner blower motor.

Referring now to the drawing in greater particularity, -1 generally indicates a portion of a roving frame showing a number of roving spindles 2 mounted in their proper relation to the frame. The roving frame cleaner is generally depicted at 3, and is composed of an oscillating ceiling cleaning unit 4 which is of little significance to this disclosure and a cleaner blower 20. The ceiling cleaning unit like the other portions of the frame cleaner is fastened to a frame 10 which is mounted on wheels 11 for travel along an overhead track 12. Fastened to the frame is the cleaner blower unit 20 which is composed of a blower motor 21 which powers in this case, two centrifugal fans, one shown as 22 and the other not shown. Depending from the outlet of the unseen fan is a rotating nozzle 24 which may be seen to extend downwardly and which effectively distributes cleaning air to the top and back of the roving frame. Fan 22 has depending from its outlet a long sleeve 25 which has spaced outlet ports (not shown) facing the roving frame to effectively distribute cleaning air to the front of the roving frame and the spindles 2. It is thus seen that as the cleaning unit 3 moves along the track, driven by motor 26, cleaning air is delivered to effectively clean all portions of the roving frame.

Depending from the cleaning unit is a photoelectric cell 30 with a protective hood 31 thereover to prevent eX- traneous light from impinging on the cell. This cell at the proper signal shuts off the blower motor 21 via the electric circuit shown in FIGURE 2 which will be more completelydescribed below. Fastened to one end of the roving frame a short distance beneath the level of the photoelectric cell is a light 40' which is connected through a circuit shown in FIG. 1 to the motor of the roving frame. Within the circuit is a relay 41 connected to the magnetic starter in the roving frame motor, which is actuated when the motor shuts off and thereby turns on the light. The light, because of a suitable lens which can be selected by one skilled in the art, is directed so that its extreme bordering rays of light diverge at a desired angle to intersect the horizontal line of travel of the photoelectric cell at each end of the roving frame as shown at 50' and 51.

In some existing roving frame installations the frames are not individually driven but rather receive their motivation as a group, perhaps of three or four machines. It is obvious that to stop the motor to work on one machine would also disable the remaining frames in the group thus presenting a "very inefficient operation. To meet this problem, each of these frames has what is known in the art as a shipper motion which makes it possible for an operator to disconnect an individual frame from the common drive shaft. It is considered that such a frame may be encompassed by my invention where the signal light circuit is connected to the shipper motion to turn on when the frame is disconnected from the drive shaft and to turn off when the frame is restored to operation.

The invention functions as follows; the cleaner unit 3 as it travels around the room on the track 12 carries with it an ever watchful photoelectric cell which moves in a horizontal path depicted as a-a in the drawing. Should a roving frame stop operating either because the operator has chosen to do so or because the stop motion has been actuated then the relay 41 will be actuated permitting current to flow to the light 40 and thus turn it on. The light is directed to point over the frame with its rays directed in the manner previously described. Should it happen that a cleaning unit is functioning over this particular frame then the light will impinge on the photoelectric cell 30. This will cause a relay 34 to trip, closing the circuit through the coil 32 and causing block switch 33 to open thus disconnecting the blower motor from its power source. Because the light 40 is directed at the photoelectric cell no matter where the cleaner is over the roving frame, it is obvious that whenever the frame stops, thus energizing the light, the blower motor will be immediately shu-t otfand will remain so, as long as the cleaner is over that particular frame. Continuing in the same vein it is thus seen that if the frame is not operating as the cleaner begins to pass over the frame and the blower is off, then, should the frame be started while the cleaner is passing over any portion of the frame the blower will be immediately started to continue the cleaning operation. Thus, by the use of my invention, a complete and continuous control of a roving frame cleaner with respect to any roving frame over which it is passing, is obtained.

It is to be understood that this invention is not to be limited by the illustrated embodiment but only by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination comprising a roving frame having a motor, a circuit associated therewith, a traveling cleaner mounted for movement over said frame at intermittent intervals and having a motor operated blower, a light fastened to one end of said frame and connected within said circuit to flash on when said motor is shut off and to turn off when said motor operates, a photoelectric cell fastened to and depending from said cleaner to a level slightly above the level of the light, said light having a lens and protective hood to send forth a controlled diverging beam of light and being directed so that the outermost rays of said beam as viewed in a substantially vertical plane intersect the line of travel of said photoelectric cell at the ends of said frame, a circuit connecting said photoelectric cell to the motor of said blower to shut off said blower when any portion of said beam of light impinges on said photoelectric cell and to turn on and maintain said blower operation when the said light does not impinge on said cell.

2. The combination of a plurality of roving frames each having a motor and a circuit associated therewith, a common traveling cleaner mounted for movement over each of said frames and having a motor operated blower, a light mounted on each of said frames beneath the path of said cleaner and connected into the motor circuit of its respective frame to flash on when the motor of its frame shuts off and to turn oil? when said motor operates, a photoelectric cell fastened to and beneath said cleaner above the plane of the lights, each of said lights having a lens and protective hood to send forth a controlled diverging beam of light and being directed so that the outermost rays of said beam as viewed in a substantially vertical plane intersect the line of travel of said photoelectric cell at the ends of its respective frame, a circuit connecting said photoelectric cell to the motor of said blower to shut off said blower when any portion of any of said beams of light impinges on said photoelectric cell and to turn on and maintain said blower operation when none of the said beams impinges on said cell.

3. A cleaner control system for a plurality of textile machines which are in a row and each of which has a powered drive and a circuit associated therewith, a common traveling cleaner mounted for movement over each of said machines and having a motor operated blower, a light source mounted over each machine, a photoelectric cell fastened to said cleaner and spaced from a substantially horizontal line joining the light sources, said cell having a substantially horizontal path of travel over and parallel to said row of machines, each of said light sources being connected into said circuit of its respective machine to turn on when the motor of its machine shuts off and to turn off when the said motor operates, said light sources being so positioned that when lit the light emitting there from over each machine and said path of travel of said cell will intersect over each machine, said intersection being in the form of a band over each machine, said cell and each of said light sources being oriented so that light from each of said sources will impinge upon said cell only when said cell is in said band over the machine to which said each source is connected, said cell having a circuit connected to said blower to shut oi'I said blower when light from one of said sources impinges on said cell and to turn on said blower when said cell is free of any light impingement from. any of said light sources.

4. A combination according to claim 3 wherein said light source is mounted adjacent one end of said each machine and has a lens to provide a controlled diverging beam of light over each machine extending at an angle less than to said line, said intersection band extending from one side of said diverging beam to the opposite side of said beam and corresponding substantially to the end to end length of said machine.

5. A cleaner control system for a plurality of textile machines which are in a row and each of which has a motor and a circuit associated therewith, a common traveling cleaner mounted for movement over each of said machines and having a motor operated blower, a light source mounted over each machine, a photoelectric cell fastened to and beneath said cleaner above a substantially horizontal plane containing the light sources, said cell having a susbtantially horizontal path of travel over and parallel to said row of machines, each of said light sources being connected into the motor circuit of its respective machine to turn on when the motor of its machine shuts olf and to turn off when the said motor operates, said light sources being so positioned that when lit the light emitting therefrom over each machine and said path of travel of said cell will intersect over each machine, said intersection being in the form of a band over each machine, said cell and each of said light sources being oriented so that light from each of said sources will impinge upon said cell only when said cell is in said band over the machine to which said each source is connected, said cell having a circuit connected to said blower to shut said blower off when light from one of said sources impinges on said cell and to turn said blower on when said cell is free of any light impingement from any of said light sources.

6. The combination according to claim 5 wherein said light source is directed upwardly of said susbtantially horizontal plane and mounted at one end of said each machine and has a hood and lens to provide a controlled diverging beam of light over each machine extending upwardly at an angle substantially less than 90 to said plane, said intersection band extending from one side of said diverging beam to the opposite side of said beam, and corresponding to the end to end length of said machine.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,184,880 Hodge Dec. 26, 1939 2,613,611 Simon Oct. 14, 1952 10 2,708,715 Meyers May 17, 1955 

